Record sensing means



Dec. 5, 1961 P. s. RAND RECORD SENSING MEANS Original Filed Oct. 7, 1955 FIG. l.

4 Sheets-Sheef l POWER SUPPLY INVENTOR PHILIP S. RAND BY W ATTORNEY 5, 9 P. s. RAND 3,011,703

RECORD SENSING MEANS Original Filed Oct. 7, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Tl'iliiiiti" FIG.2.

\\ PHILIP S. RAND v ATTORNEY Dec. 5, 1961 P. s. RAND RECORD SENSING MEANS 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Original Filed Oct. 7, 1955 INVENTOR PHILIP S, RAND E NW] mm ATTORN EY Dec. 5, 1961 P. s. RAND 3,01 03 RECORD SENSING MEANS Original Filed Oct. 7, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 FIG. 6. 74

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INVENTOR PHILIP S. RAND ATTORNEY United States Patent Ofitice 3,011,703 Patented Dec. 5, 1961 3,011,703 RECORD SENSING MEANS Philip S. Rand, Redding Ridge, Conn, assignor to Sperry Rand Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Original application Oct. 7, 1955, Ser. No. 539,103, now Patent No. 2,938,666, dated May 31, 1960. Divided and this application Sept. 10, 1959, Scr. No. 839,249

4 Claims. (Cl. 235--61.11)

This invention relates to record sensing devices, and in particular to one adapted to read the data designations of a statistical card or the like.

in the use of mechanical pin sensing means or electrical contact brushes that physically engage the card, the latter is likely to become worn or mutilated with successive passages through the sensing means. In order to eliminate the possibility of wear from this source, it is an object of the invention to sense or read the data from a record card with means that do not physically engage the card so that the card will have a greater period of usefulness.

A further object of the invention is to provide record reading means that can be employed with a web or card form of thin paper or card stock that would be too fragile to withstand the repeated action of sensing means that wipe the stock as is the case with circuit controlling brushes, or pins that pass through the openings, which latter may become slightly mutilated, when the stock expands or contracts due to change in atmospheric conditions.

Still further objects of the invention are: to provide a reading means that has a minimum number of moving parts so that relatively quiet operation of the device is possible; to provide for reading the record by the operation of a scanning means that can read the record row by row; to provide for reading the record in its entirety at once, to provide for the use of rays from a light source that can be picked up and transmitted very rapidly and accurately; to provide a sensing device that may embody means for the control of remotely situated apparatus; and to provide a light sensing means that can be readily adjusted to read selected fields of a record.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention particularly relating to the details of construction and operation will become apparent from the following description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which FIG. 1 is a vertical section taken through a conventional card feeding mechanism from front to rear and in connection with which a preferred form of the invention is shown;

FIG. 2 is a face view of a statistical record card illustrating one form of record that can be sensed in the mechanism of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section taken substantially on the line 33 of FIG. 1, enlarged to show the detailed structure of the photocell mounting;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to F IG. 1 showing another means of employing the invention and illustrating its use in reading the entire record at once;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional detail of apart of the sensing means of F IG.. 4, showing an alternate construction; I l

FIG. 6 is a wiring diagram includingfsome of the photocells and amplifying tubes in circuit with a commutator; 1 i

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a sensing means including plural reading stations for usein devices requiring a presensing operation;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary view of a drum on which a record card is carried in endwise position; and

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of that portion of the drum shown in FIG. 8.

This application is a division of application Serial No. 539,103 filed October 7, 1955 in the name of Philip S. Rand for Record Sensing Means, now Patent No. 2,938,666 of May 31, 1960.

Referring to the drawing in detail, and in particular to FIGS. 1 to 3, inclusive, 10 indicates one form of a perforated record in the nature of a card which it is desired to sense. The data of the card is punched at any of five hundred and forty data designation positions located at the intersection of row and column positions to provide alphabetical and numerical information in code form. The rows 11 extend lengthwise of the card and the columns 12 extend Widthwise thereof. The cards are stacked in a supply bin 13 with the bottom edges 14 thereof, constituting the leading edges, to be first fed out into the first feed rolls 16 by a picker knife 17 mounted on the upper end of a picker arm linkage 18. The latter is oscillated by a picker cam 20 to feed one card at a time out of the bin to be grasped by the first set of feed rolls 16 and to be fed to the sensing station 19.

The sensing station 19, as shown in FIG. 1 includes a card chamber consisting of an upper plate 21 and a lower plate 22 spaced vertically from each other to permit a card 10 to be slid therebetween by the combined action of the feed rolls 16 and spaced pairs of skid rolls 23 which are so disposed as to engage the end edges of the card to propel the latter through the sensing station and hold it by frictional engagement against a stop 24. The operation of the stop, through its linkage 25, is coordimated with the action of the picker as is well known and disclosed in FIG. 3 of Patent No. 2,323,816 granted to W. W. Laskeret al., July 6, 1943. When the card has been sensed, the stop 24- opens and the card is fed out of the sensing station by the combined action of the skid rolls 23 and a pair of eject rolls 26, and deposited in an output bin 27.

The upper plate 21 is of a suitable material that is electrically conductive and is coated with stannic oxide or other substance so that the plate glows when an electric current is applied thereto. Specifically a glass sheet,

covered on its lower face with the coating, is supported in a frame to which wires 28 lead to provide current from any suitable source. The coated glass emits a glow which passes through the holes in the card 10 and which can be transmitted through suitable holes in the lower plate or masking panel 22 to the upper ends of the light conducting Lucitetrods or tubes 30 which at their upper ends are supported in said panel. The latter constitutes a base plate along which the card is fed to abut the stop .24. The lower panel or masking plate is provided with Y the frame of the machine and presenting an under recess in which the revolving detector unit is housed.

card with the operation of the scanning or detector unit 32. The bail revolves clockwise so that during approximately one half a revolution the photocells 33 each scan columnwise the ends of the light rods of each row. The light passing through a hole in the card in any data designation position thereof will energize a photocell 33 as it coincides with the end of the corresponding rod. The fixed tubular shaft 36 has secured thereto the flanged sleeves 39 of the commutator disks 41 which disks correspond with the photocells 33 and are made from a suitable insulating material. Each disk on its outer face is provided with studs or segments 42 corresponding to the data index positions of one column of the card, and also corresponding to the lower ends of the light rods 30 of each column. One commutator disk 41 is provided for each column of the record and as the cells 33 sweep the lower ends of the light rods 30, any cell energized by light will cause current to flow through a brush 43, depending therefrom for wiping engagement with the studs 42. Each stud is connected,

through wiring 44, in circuit with a suitable current amplifier 46, one form of which will be later explained. In each wire 44 a switch 47 is provided so that current, corresponding to holes in any field column of a record, can be transmitted to the amplifying means and in this manner the operator can select any of the columns in any field of the card that information is to be taken from. After the current passes through the amplifying means 46, which is connected to a power supply 48,

it can be passed through a decoding means 49 and be used to control any desired apparatus 51 such as a punch, tabulator or typewriter, in the well known manner.

Referring to the form of the invention shown in FIGS. 4, 5, and 6, a card supply bin or hopper 52 holds cards of the form shown in FIG. 2, which are fed out of the bottom of the bin by a picker 53 to be advanced by feed rolls 54 to a first sensing station 56 to abut an adjustable stop 57 against which the cards are held by skid rolls 58. At this station the cards are first sensed and when the stop 57 opens they are passed by intermediate feed rolls 59 to a second sensing station 61 which also includes skid rolls 62 and a stop 63 for holding the card to be sensed until such time in the sensing cycle as the stop is opened and the card then fed to the eject rolls 64. The cards issuing from the eject rolls are fed to the clips 66 of a stacking drum 67 which has a peripheral speed slightly less than the speed with which the card is advancing, so that the latter is forced into the clips and carried around on the drum to be deposited in an output bin 68. Both sensing stations 56 and 61 are of similar construction and a description of one will sufiice. Each card chamber consists of an upper light source plate 69 of the nature described in connection with the structure of FIG. 1, that is, a plate having a coating on the underside which when subjected to an electric current will emit a glow, or any suitably illuminated glass plate which will provide downwardly directed light rays which can pass through the code holes of a card being sensed. The latter is supported on a masking plate 71 that has a hole in each position corresponding to the code designation positions of the card being sensed. Each of the five hundred and forty holes in the masking plate coincides with a photocell of a bank of photo-cells 72 closely underlying the masking plate which acts to prevent the spread of light from adjacent holes. The photocell bank is connected to suitable amplifying means 73 from which the current from each hole sensed in the card is transferred to the studs or segments 74 of a commutator 76. The latter is provided with a rotating arm 77 whose outer brush end 78 sweeps the inner periphery of the arcuate or cylindrical commutator to successively transfer the current from each row of segments, corresponding to the rows of data designation positions of the card, to controlled equipment such as a punch or data comparing means for which the dual sensing stations may be employed, as an example of their use.

The commutator 76 has five hundred and forty segments 74 and forty-five brushes 78 representing the fortyfive columns of the card. The commutator transmits the signals it receives to a suitable control panel, not shown, from whence they can be used to control a specific machine or function. In FIG. 6 a typical circuit for four photo-cells only is shown in which the anodes 79 of amplifier tubes 81 are connected through plate resistors 82 to a common current supply 83, the cathodes 84 being grounded. In the grid circuit of each tube 81 there is one photo-cell 72 connected in series with an adjustable resistor 86 and a grid voltage supply 87. The circuit is balanced by means of the individual grid resistors 86 so that no current flows through an amplifier tube from source 83 to ground when a photo-cell is not energized by the detection of light. If light shines on a photo-cell, the grid of the corresponding amplifier tube becomes positive and current then flows through the amplifier tube. The current produces a voltage drop across the corresponding anode resistor and since this resistor is connected to a commutator segment a voltage will appear across 88 when the brush 78 of the commutator wipes the segment. The time period in the scanning cycle when this voltage occurs indicates the particular code hole thereby sensed. As a modification of this arrangement it is possible to mount the photo-cells in a larger area and use Lucite or quartz rods to conduct light thereto from a masking plate as shown in FIG. 5. Also, in the forms illustrated, the light source may be an electrically conductive coated glass plate emitting infra red rays and the light cells can be lead sulphide cells which are sensitive to infra red rays.

In the form of the invention shown in FIGS. 7, 8, and 9, a card hopper 91 audits associated picker feed means 92 passes cards endwise through feed rolls 93 to be inserted and held in suitable clips 94 on the surface of sensing drums 96 and 97 constituting first and second sensing stations between which the cards are advanced by the feed rolls 98. Each drum at spaced points on its periphery has two banks 99 and 100 of photo-cells. Each bank has six photo-cells for alignment with the upper and lower zone rows of the card as shown in FIG. 8. As the drum rotates the bank 99 will sense the holes in each successive column of the upper zone of the card and then bank 100 of the cells will sense the holes in each successive column of the lower zone of the card, the sensing in each instance occurring as the column of the card passes over the light source 101 one of which is mounted stationary inside the drum in alignment with each zone of the card. The drum may be of any desired material and the area thereof that supports the card may be perforated to provide a masking area or may be translucent to allow the light from the sources 101 to successively energize the photo-cells through the data designating holes in the card. The coordinated feed of the card and the position thereof with respect to the drum may be synchronized with the passage of a brush over the segments of a commutator as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 and well understood in the art.

It is evident that any number of sets of photo-cell banks may be employed with one drum depending upon the size thereof so that more than one sensing of each card can take place on each drum. The use of the term light herein is intended to cover the various forms of energy wave lengths, infra red rays being one example.

While there has been shown and described the fundamentally novel features of the invention as embodied in several modifications, it will be understood that various omissions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention therefore to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a device of the character described, the combination with a plurality of record sensing stations; of means for feeding records one at a time to said stations in succession; means for detaining the records at each station; a light source glow plate for passing light simultaneously through all of the data openings positioned in row and column order in the records and a masking plate spaced from said glow plate to provide a sensing chamber, said masking plate having openings corresponding to all of the index positions of said record; a bank of photocell means at each station arranged in row and column direction and adapted to be energized by light from said source means passing through the openings in the masking plate and through the data openings of the records; segment means with which said photocells means are in circuit; and circuit means including a brush for sweeping said segment means in column direction to control an apparatus in accordance with the energization of said cell means.

2. In a machine controlled by a record having index positions thereon for data openings punched in the record; spaced plate members constituting a record chamber and including an upper light emitting plate and a lower light masking plate having openings corresponding to each of the row and column index positions of the record; means for feeding records to the record chamber one at a time; means for detaining a record in the chamber with the index positions in register with the openings in said masking plate; a light sensitive cell in register with each opening in the masking plate and adapted to be energized by light passing through corresponding holes in the record for sensing all of the openings in the record simultaneously; segment means corresponding to the row and column locations of said index positions and with which said cells are connected; brush means for passing over said segments in columnwise direction and circuit means including said cell means, the segments, the brush and apparatus to be controlled by the energization of said cell means.

3. In a machine controlled by a record having index positions thereon in row and column order for data openings punched in the record; spaced plate members constituting a record chamber and including an upper light emitting plate and a lower light masking plate having openings corresponding to the index positions of the record; means for feeding records to the chamber one at a time; stop means for detm'ning a record in the chamber with the index positions thereof in register with the openings in said masking plate; light conveying rod means depending from each of said masking plate openings; a light sensitive cell in register with the lower end of each rod means and adapted to be energized by light passing through a corresponding hole in the record; segment means corresponding to the row and column locations of said index positions connected to said cells; and brush means passing over said segments in columnwise direction for controlling a circuit.

4. In a machine controlled by a card having index positions thereon in row and column order for data openings punched in the card; a plurality of card sensing chambers each comprising an upper light emitting plate and a lower light masking plate having openings corresponding to the index positions of a card; means for feeding cards through the sensing chambers successively; means for detaining the cards in each chamber with the index positions in register with the openings in the masking plate; photo cell means in register with the openings in the masking plates and adapted to be energized by light passing through a corresponding hole in the card; segment means corresponding to the row and column locations of said index positions connected to said photo cell means; and brush means passing over said segment means in columnwise direction for controlling a circuit governed by said photo cell means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,063,486 Carroll Dec. 8, 1936 2,224,765 Dickinson et a1 Dec. 10, 1940 2,484,114 Page et a1. Oct. 11, 1949 2,672,288 Perrin Mar. 16, 1954 2,727,685 Wilson Dec. 20, 1955 2,938,666 Rand May 31, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,089,968 France Oct. 13, 1954 

